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Saturday, March 31, 2018

My 3 Cardboard Craft Books are finally here!

Ok. The title says it all. So please buy my 3 awesome cardboard and duct tape craft books. End of Post.

Just kidding! (Apparently I'm much too wordy for a 1 line post.)

So grab a coffee or tea and let's chat.

Last June I shared that a publishing company contacted me about writing a series of cardboard craft books. (If you missed that post, or you just want to see a photo of our cardboard-filled garage, click here.)

Well, it's been almost a year since that post and tada.... the books are here!

Don't they look good enough to eat? Num num num num num.

This post contains affiliate links. This means I make a teeny tiny bit of money from any purchases made through the Amazon links below. Thank you for your support! For my full disclosure, click here.

Today's post is just me sharing about the books and my reflections on my journey as a craft author. If that's not your thing and you just came for some cute crafts, then click on any of the tabs on my right sidebar.

First of all, I just want to say that I am so proud of all the hard work (and blood, sweat, and tears) that went into creating and designing these books. (Many thanks especially to my husband for bearing with me while I turned our dining room and garage into my own personal craft studio. Many thanks also to Aruna, my graphic designer, who really made my projects pop off the page with her fun book designs.)

Ready to Talk Craft Books?

Ok! There are three books in this Epic Adventures with Cardboard and Duct Tape series:

Do the kids ever dream about visiting dinosaurs? Or wish to sail like pirates in the seven seas? Inside this book you'll find inspiration for 11 fun projects for toys and costumes to help kids pretend like they're traveling through time. From the prehistoric era to the golden age of pirates, kids will have fun "time traveling" with cardboard!

Here's a sample of one of my favorite projects:

(I love how you can see the insides AND outsides of the dinosaurs! Such a great STEAM activity.)

When my kids get older, I hope to take them on different adventures around the globe. Right now my little one is 2... so traveling to far-away places can be rather difficult. (If you follow my Instagram feed you'll see that we went to the Philippines a couple of months ago. The trip was amazing... but we definitely worked to keep our sleep-deprived child happy.)

So if you and the kids aren't yet able to travel around the world, I get you. And that's why I think this particular book in the series is so fun. It has 12 projects (like spaceship controls, a boat design challenge, snow shoes, and explorer bag) to help you and the kids imagine traveling around our wide, wonderful world!

This cute book contains 13 crafts to help you put on a carnival, create your own tv show, or star in your own indie band.

Here's a photo of my son's favorite craft from the book:

(I tell you, I used a similar 2-stick turning design for this cardboard conveyor belt craft and it's always such a big hit. There's something about turning sticks and seeing paper move that is really, really magical...)

If you're looking for fun, cardboard + duct tape projects to make with the kids... these are seriously your books.

Here's Why You'll Love These Craft Books:

You don't need to buy anything special to make them. I designed all the projects so that they can be made with everyday items.

You'll have fun crafting AND playing with the projects. These aren't crafts that you make to hang on your wall. They're designed to be played with too. That's part of the fun! My dream is for you to have some pretty epic creative adventures as a family!

You'll learn a new thing or two about crafting after trying the projects out. (I threw in some nifty little tricks here and there!)

Ok. And here are my final, final thoughts... I swear...

(Funnily enough, if you were to meet me in real life, you'd be shocked that I would even write such a long post. I'm pretty awkward and introverted... so I'm not usually so chatty....)

Some Final Reflections on Being a Craft Book Author:

Back in 2014 (Whoa. How far back are we going, Leslie? Stick with me, dear reader.... I do have a point... I promise...) I shared my secret, foolish dream of being a professional crafter...

I am beyond surprised and thankful for all the opportunities that this blog has given me.

This whole process of authoring a series of craft books was really, really amazing... and difficult. I loved coming up with ideas and then seeing them work out. But there were also nights when I literally sat at my dining room table crying because I didn't think I was going to make the deadlines or because I worried that my projects weren't creative enough... or that I was just a crafting hack. (There was also that one night when both my hands got horrible rashes from working with some old, contaminated cardboard. Ick. That was pretty horrible.)

Anyway, I almost called it quits so many times, but now that I'm on the other side I'm really glad that I soldiered on.

Making time to create and play with kids is something that I feel really passionately about. And hopefully these books will give families, classrooms, and communities lots of ideas and opportunities to do just that!

And now we've finally reached the end, my friends. Thank you for joining me on this journey. And please, do let me know how you enjoy the books.